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Homework answers / question archive / 1) According to FEMA, Emergency Management is: “Organized analysis, planning, decision-making, and assignment of available resources to mitigate (lessen the effect of or prevent), prepare for, respond to, and recover from the effects of all hazards
1) According to FEMA, Emergency Management is: “Organized analysis, planning, decision-making, and assignment of available resources to mitigate (lessen the effect of or prevent), prepare for, respond to, and recover from the effects of all hazards. Emergency management aims to save lives, prevent injuries, and protect property and the environment if an emergency occurs. (Theory, Principles, and Fundamentals of Hazards, Disasters, and U.S. Emergency Management. 1995. P.1-6)” FEMA further states that anemergency manager will focus on the day-to-dayactivities that fire and police departments perform. These activities include putting out fires and rescuing people. Therefore from an emergency management perspective handling the daily activities such as search and rescue would be critical, coordinating these efforts with fire and police.
“The areas of public health responsibility include (1) assuring an adequate local public health infrastructure, (2) promoting healthy communities and healthy behaviors, (3) preventing the spread of communicable disease, (4) protecting against environmental health hazards, (5) preparing for and responding to emergencies, and (6) assuring health services. You can find more information on public health activities relating to these areas online (Minnesota Public Health). From a public health perspective, this learner thinks that sending clear messaging to citizens is critical. Therefore, the first item on the agenda would be to message out about staying safe. As an example, in the case of Japan, there would have been down power lines, contaminated water, and floating debris. Citizens need to understand how to protect themselves. Public Health officials also need to start obtaining more vaccinations for tetanus. Public Health officials also need to coordinate efforts on how to help people who were exposed to radiation. Finally, the public health officials will need to get clean drinking water and food for people. Public health officials should help the public understand how to manage dead bodies. Lastly the public health officials can help connect people to social services as they start returning home (Williams et al., 2011).
Both of these roles are very similar; the focus for both is to reduce hazards and control anticipated damage. However, public health will focus more on food safety and sanitation, infectious disease outbreaks, and vaccinations if necessary.
2. In an emergency, it becomes a race against time to save lives. The longer it takes to design and implement an emergency plan, the more lives will be lost. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2021.), the following emergency management steps should be followed to reduce the loss of lives during an emergency: assess current state, determine strategies and activities, develop plans.
Accessing the current state would be difficult because you are dealing with two natural disasters, a 9.1 earthquake, a tsunami, and one man-made disaster, radiation coming from nuclear power plants. Since aftershocks are always an issue after a tsunami, the first step would be to evacuate the surrounding towns of all the nuclear power plants and declare a nuclear emergency. According to Cable News Network (2021), the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant experienced a complete meltdown from the aftershocks. The Japanese government downplayed the long-term health effects, and radiation is still seeping into the Pacific Ocean ten years later (CNN, 2021).
The job of a health educator during an emergency is to get life-saving information out to the public. According to CDC (2014), health effects from a tsunami come in three phases: immediate health concerns, secondary effects, and long last effects. Normal communication channels do not exist with the loss of electricity, internet, and cell service. Having a health campaign before the disaster strikes is when health educators are most effective. According to Williams et al. (2011), educating the public about the hazards of contaminated food/water, electrocution, gas leaks, and infectious diseases will reduce post-disaster injuries. Once the normal channels of communication have been established, health campaigns on reducing long-term mental health issues caused by disasters such as PTSD, anxiety, depression would be most crucial.
Both health educators and emergency management save lives during a disaster, but there are differences. The role of emergency management agencies is to coordinate the government's role in preparing for, preventing, responding to, and recovering from all man-made and natural disasters (Federal Emergency Management Agency, n.d.). While the health educator’s role of educating the public can be helpful after a disaster, it is critical before the disaster strikes. According to Torani et al. (2019), studies show disaster education by qualified health educators can mean the difference between life or death for people with disabilities and the elderly. Vulnerable populations usually cannot predict, cope or rehab after a disaster without prior health education (Torani et al., 2019).
Response 1
Thank you for this great post! You have accurately defined emergency management as organization, planning, and management of resources to stave off, respond, or recover from humanitarian forms of emergencies. Your analysis also provides an overview about the primary aims of emergency management— saving lives, mitigating injuries, and protecting property or the environment when faced with a crisis. Further, the analysis of emergency management displays an intriguing understanding of the concept as the paper encapsulates examples of emergency management activities, such as fire rescue operations. The discussion also focuses on the role of public health responsibilities, including promoting healthy behaviors, preventing the spread of infectious diseases, ensuring there is adequate public health infrastructure, and responding to emergencies. Correctly, you have identified the similarity between emergency management and public health roles— reducing hazards and controlling the anticipated damage. Also notable is your emphasis on the fact that while the roles seem familiar, public health focus more disease outbreaks, infection, food safety, and immunization. In my view, the comparative analysis you have presented is intriguing and underscores your understanding of the two concepts.
However, I think you could have done better as the discussion is somewhat devoid of flow and fragmented. Also, you have defined emergency management by directly quoting a source, which is not included in the references. You started by quoting FEMA’s definition for emergency management, but included the aims of emergency management into the quote. In my view, this could be misleading. Similarly, you enlisted Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014) as part of references but did not cite the source in the essay.
Response 2
First off, your insight about emergency is true: saving lives in the shortest time possible is the central focus of emergency. Taking a long time to formulate an emergency and execute an emergency plan could risk many people’s lives. Significantly, your discussion offers a window into understanding viable emergency management steps, from assessing the current state, developing strategies, and designing plans. Your elaboration of situation assessment is precise and intriguing as you have approached it with a critical lens. For instance, your analysis underscores the difficulty in examining emergency situations when responding to more than two emergency disasters simultaneously, such as earthquakes and tsunami. Also commendable in your discussion is the support of arguments made with relevant examples, such as the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant’s meltdown in the aftermath of the nuclear emergency.
I agree with you that the health educators play a central role during an emergency by offering life-saving information to the public. Additionally, you have identified the communication difficulties health educators might face in some disaster management cases such as tsunami, which tend to interfere with the electricity, cell service, and internet. The health educators help the public to understand the health hazards associated with electrocution, contaminated food, and communicable diseases through health campaigns. I concede to your assertion that in addition to mitigating the health hazards, health education during emergencies play a vital role in reducing metal health issues, such as depression and trauma, associated with disasters. Your comparison between health educators and emergency management is profound. Indeed, both health educators and emergency management focus on saving lives. In sum, you have presented a great discussion with a logical flow and appropriate citation. All the best!
Outline
Title; Response to 2 peers
